Episodes Nearest to March 3, 1847: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Wilmot Proviso defeated by the Senate for the final time
    date March 3, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Slavery

    Passed for a second time by the House on March 3, 1847, but eventually rejected by the senate again. Despite its failure to pass, the Proviso raised serious constitutional and political questions as to the acceptability of slavery. The Wilmot Proviso, attached as an amendment to an appropriations bill, essentially aimed to prevent slavery from occurring in any territory ceded from Mexico after...

  2. New Orleans Courts report thousands of whites recently jailed for vagrancy
    date 1847 to May 2, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Crime/Violence, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    As of May 2, 1847 the New Orleans Court Recorder reported that thousands of whites had been sentenced to the workhouse for acts of vagrancy. Often times the courts handed down these sentences without proof, trial, or opportunity to appeal. The fate of these vagrants represents a common occurrence throughout the South. Around this time period in South Carolina the leadership sold vagrants into...

  3. W.B. Shapard's Very Desirable and Beautiful Farm
    date March 4, 1847map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Agriculture, Slavery

    The heading above W.B. Shapard's Richland Creek estate advertisement boldly read: That very desirable and Beautiful Farm. Shapard first ran the advertisement in Nashville on March 4, 1847, and by Saturday, March 27, 1847 it ran again in the classifieds of The Daily Union. Shapard wanted to sell his estate, and vividly described every aspect of it in his advertisement. The estate was not merely...

  4. John C. Calhoun aids in defeating the Ten Regiment Bill
    date February, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags War

    In his run for the presidency John C. Calhoun opposed the Ten Regiment Bill proposed by the Polk administration to bolster the army to continue the fight against the Mexicans. The ten regiment bill called for increased funding to raise and outfit an additional ten regiments to fight Santa Anna's troops in the Mexican American War. Congress intended this funding to last until the end of the...

  5. A Coming Together of the Races
    date January 22, 1847map WASHINGTON, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure, Race-Relations

    On January 22 1847, a peculiar event took place at the Jonesborough hatter shop. On this occasion, whites and blacks of the town congregated for what was known as a Negro Party. Together, members of both races cast aside racial differences in order to celebrate the coming of the New Year. Every guest, despite their race, took part in the festivities which included feasting and dancing. The merriment...

  6. Maryland's Desire to Establish a Decision
    date January 21, 1847map PRINCE GEORGES, Marylandtags Race-Relations, Slavery

    The abolitionist movement began as a peaceful movement in the eyes of Marylanders, however, as they approached the goal of emancipation, many citizens question what their respective states would be like without the admittance of slavery. The question of whether of not Maryland was truly a southern state. According to Richard Walsh and William Lloyd Fox's History of Maryland, the free...

  7. The Runaway Slave
    date April 14, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    For many enslaved people in the Deep South, slavery was the only way of life they had ever known. Regardless, stories of the North and specifically, a place referred to as Philadelphia, were incentive enough to prompt some to brave the terrifying unknown and escape the even more terrifying world in which they were already bound. At some point during the day - or perhaps it was the night - of April...

  8. An Honorable Boy
    date April 15, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Agriculture, Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    On April 15, 1847, The National Era printed an article publicizing one person's genuine act of kindness towards mankind. This person was no established politician providing aid for victims of the Irish Potato Famine; instead, he was a small five-year-old boy named Joseph Klemm. When Joseph's mother read him one disturbing account from Ireland, his first instinct was to run and get his moneybox....

  9. Jabez Smith hired to oversee construction of a factory along the Augusta Canal
    date January, 1847map RICHMOND, Georgiatags Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The factory eventually constructed by Smith along the canal played a key role in both stimulating the local economy and eventually in the Civil War. The canal and rail connections found in Augusta made it ideal for wartime industry like the production of gun powder. In fact the canal attracted such a broad array of war time industries during the Civil War that the citizens of Augusta began to...

  10. Blood in the Streets
    date January 7, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Crime/Violence, Government, Law, Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    Contrary to popular belief, the Civil War was not an instantaneous outbreak of violence. The years leading up to the affair were full of bargains, compromises, and violent encounters that transcended both racial and societal lines. On January 7, 1847, many newspapers distributed articles focusing on the ongoing war with Mexico. The dispute increased social and political unrest back east, and the...

  11. The Price of Slavery
    date January 2, 1847map DARLINGTON, South Carolinatags Prices, African-Americans, Slavery

    To a group of slaves about to be sold to a new owner, the future is uncertain. Their new home may promise decent food and board, or it may mean the separation from their closest family members, abusive overseers, and grueling work that drives them to the brink of death. This is what thirteen slaves faced when they were sold on January 2, 1847 by John D. McCullough to Samuel W. Evans. The document...

  12. A Bitter Winter
    date November 4, 1846 to January, 1847map TERRITORY, Territorytags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, Native-Americans, Women

    The winter of 1846 was physically, emotionally and mentally draining for twenty year-old Mary Ann Graves, a member of the group of emigrants now infamously known as the Donner Party. As one of the survivors of this horrible episode in history, she wrote a letter to Levi Fosdick on May 22 of the following spring recounting her experiences. Her concluding remark was "I have told the bad news, and...

  13. A Religious Master's Desperate Decision
    date May 20, 1847map PRINCE GEORGES, Marylandtags Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On May 20, 1847, The National Era in Washington, D.C. contained an article concerning a surprising act of a man fro Prince George County, Maryland. Enlightened by the Marlborough (Maryland) Gazette, the Era learned that the heirs of the late John Townsend brought forth a case against the testator's will. The late Townsend caused uproar in the county with his proposal...

  14. The 50 Dollar Reward for Harry the Runaway
    date December 12, 1846map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On December 12, 1846, Landon Harrison ran a wanted advertisement in The Nashville Daily Union. Months later, on Saturday, March 27, 1847, the Daily Union continued to run the advertisement. One of the slaves on Harrison?s plantation ran away, and Harrison entered a wanted ad in hopes of having him found and returned as soon as possible. In order to ensure the slaves safe return, master's...

  15. Mayor of Macon advises of disease risks
    date May 24, 1847map MACON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The mayor of Macon, Georgia issued a health warning at the suggestion of the Board of Health about the dangers of stagnant water. The proclamation details the danger of leaving water to lay stagnant on one's property because of the risk of mosquito born diseases like yellow Fever and malaria. The mayor states that the city has gone to considerable expense to remove stagnant water from public...

  16. Female College Prepares Women for Society and the Domestic State
    date June 4, 1847map GUILFORD, North Carolinatags Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Women

    During the final examinations for girls at Greensboro Female College, a local newspaper commended the institution in its effort to develop and cultivate the intellect and give dignity to the mind while at the same time preparing women to bear with dignity the responsibilities and trials of the domestic state. According to the Greensboro Patriot, the sister women's college, Edgeworth, founded...

  17. A Country Wedding in 1846
    date November, 1846map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Women

    One November afternoon, Eliza Moore Chinn McHatten Ripley and her brother Dick set off for a farm not too far outside of their home in New Orleans. This short journey became a longer one as transportation troubles and creek flooding slowed them down. Eventually, Eliza and Dick found a place to stay over for a night before continuing on their way the following morning.

    They finally reached...

  18. Wanted, An Overseer
    date 1847map COLUMBIA, Floridatags Race-Relations, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Women

    As George Gillet Keen would have told you himself, he was a man of few words. He wanted niggers. In particular, he wanted the ability to hire an overseer, to raise himself to a higher class distinction. Some of his hunting buddies had overseers, and their constant dialogue about plantation life left Keen on the outside. He wanted nothing more in life than a plantation of niggers so I could talk...

  19. Greene County Goes Yellow with Fever
    date January, 1847 to December, 1847map ORANGE, North Carolina, GREENE, Alabamatags Plague, Cameron family, alabama, Slavery, Yellow Fever

    In 1847 inhabitants of the Mississippi River basin  had to deal with an outbreak of Yellow Fever.  Transmitted by mosquitoes, Yellow Fever caused symptoms including fevers, chills, headaches and nausea.  In the later months of 1847 the letters that overseer Charles Lewellyn sent to Paul Cameron about the condition of his plantation were fraught with the names of slave that were ill, recovering...

  20. The Good Slave
    date October 28, 1846map GREENE, Alabamatags Slavery, Antebellum America, Paternalism

    Slavery is anathema, but it was not always so.  It was quite possible for well-meaning and rational people to practice and defend the “peculiar institution.”  Slaveholders sustained themselves with the firm conviction that they were doing right by the poor, benighted souls in their charge.  In this way, masters could claim they were compassionate angels of mercy--providing discipline, moral...

  21. Louisiana's Involvement in the Mexican War
    date July 8, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    By the summer of 1847, the Mexican War had been going on for just over a year. Newspapers kept citizens up to date with daily progress by their American troops south of the border, including lists of the casualties as well as those enlisting. New Orleans residents opened up their Times Picayunes the morning of July 8 to read a familiar notice, entitled Departure of Troops. It announced...

  22. Whig Reaction to the Mexican War
    date July 17, 1847map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags War

    As the Mexican War continued through 1847, Americans expressed a growing amount of opposition to a war that originally promised as an easy victory was growing into a drawn-out costly endeavor. In July 1847, former Whig Senator William Cabell Rives spoke at the University of Virginia against the war. He emphasized that the US had no right to “interfere with the institutions of other countries'...

  23. Bad Medicine and the use of Galvanism in the Cameron Plantation letters at Stagville
    date October, 1846 to 1846map ORANGE, North Carolinatags Galvanism, slavery,, plantation, slaves

    There is numerous life situations featured in the letters of the Cameron Plantation. The focus of interest here is the life of the enslaved people as seen through the eyes of the Cameron family. Of course because of this we must interpret based on what we see in the letters. There are real human issues. These include affection, sickness, disease, travel, and home life just to name a few. The goal...

  24. Sam Forwood's Fatherly Advice
    date October 8, 1846map CLARKE, Alabamatags Agriculture, Health/Death, Economy, Education

    On October 8, 1846, in Clark County, Alabama, Sam Forwood wrote a letter to his sixteen-year-old son, William Stump Forwood, who was living in Maryland with his grandmother for schooling.Young William had been questioning what occupation he should pursue, and his father had several points of advice. Sam advised his son to pursue the profession of medicine. As Sam explained it, becoming a doctor...

  25. Slave Owner Uses Modern Medicine to Treat Malaria
    date September 21, 1846 to September 26, 1846map ORANGE, North Carolinatags Science/Technology, Medicine, Slavery

             In late September 1846 several slaves from the Fairntosh plantation in Durham, North Carolina fell sick with malaria. Their owner, planter Paul Cameron, tells his father Duncan how he provided medicine for his sick slaves as well as the traditional herbs and teas.

    “Since that time we have a great deal of chill and fever at the mill quarter in [unintelligible] I have made the...